TurboVNC

TurboVNC is a cool project that comes from TightVNC, but it has some neat differences that make it stand out. First off, TurboVNC only uses two types of image encoding: Tight JPEG and Raw encoding for 24-bit pixels. The Tight encoding gets a boost from TurboJPEG, which helps in getting high frame rates, even if it uses a bit more bandwidth. On the other hand, TightVNC spends a lot of CPU time reducing color depth for low-bandwidth networks like dial-up. This can slow things down on faster connections.

Image Quality Control

With TurboVNC, you get more control over JPEG image quality. Plus, there’s an optional double buffering feature on the client side to help reduce tearing in 3D apps and videos.

Improved Performance Features

This software also has some protocol tweaks that allow parts of the VNC pipeline to run in parallel. This means better performance on high-latency networks! Another great feature is the "lossless refresh" option. When you hit a hotkey, it sends a Zlib-encoded RGB copy of your screen image. This is super handy when you need great image quality but your network speed isn't cooperating.

Compatibility and Speed

TurboVNC works really well with VirtualGL's X11 Image Transport for displaying 3D applications remotely over wide-area networks. While it performs similarly to VGL Image Transport on local networks, keep in mind that you interact with the entire remote desktop in one window.

Speed Stats

You can send nearly 20 Megapixels per second over a 100 Megabit per second local area network while keeping perceptually lossless image quality! Even over a 3 Megabit per second broadband connection, it can deliver between 10 and 12 Megapixels per second at decent quality.

Backward Compatibility

The TurboVNC server is compatible with other VNC versions too! You can connect RealVNC and TightVNC clients to the TurboVNC server (though performance may drop). And don’t worry—you can install it alongside other VNC software without any issues!

What's New?

This release comes with some exciting new features:

• A new preset for all VNC viewers lets users pick WAN protocol optimizations along with perceptually lossless image quality.


• A '-list' option for vncserver now shows all VNC sessions running under your user account—no more guessing!


• No more failures if the USER environment variable isn’t set; this check was pointless anyway!


• The Windows build now properly shows version numbers in TurboVNC.exe.


• The default startup file logic has been improved so Gnome will be used as the window manager on Solaris if available.


• A fix is included so Gnome launches smoothly even when starting TurboVNC from another X session.